Moses Newson

{{tone|date=August 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Moses J. Newson | image =  | image_upright = | image_size =  | alt = | caption = | pronunciation = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1927|02|05}} | birth_place = Fruitland Park, Florida | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | burial_place =  | burial_coordinates =  | other_names = | education = Lincoln University | alma_mater = | occupation = Journalist | years_active = 1952–1998 | era = | employer = ''Tri-State Defender'' & ''Baltimore Afro-American'' newspapers | organization = | agent =  | known_for = | notable_works =  | style = | television = | title = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | family = | awards = 2014 NABJ Hall of Fame Honoree, 2008 Hall of Fame Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association | website =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | module6 = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }} '''Moses J. Newson''' (born February 5, 1927) is an American journalist for the ''Baltimore Afro-American'' in Baltimore, Maryland who reported on the Civil Rights Movement, most notably the Freedom Rides.<ref name=BaltimoreSun3>{{cite web|url=http://baltimoretimes-online.com/news/2014/jun/06/award-winning-journalist-talks-about-old-struggles/|title=Award-winning journalist talks about old and new struggles}}</ref><ref name=washingtonpost>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500888.html|title=Story Of Their Lives|first=Wil|last=Haygood|date=November 26, 2006|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref name=afro>{{cite web|url=https://www.afro.com/afro-legend-moses-newson-reflects-90-years/|title=AFRO Legend Moses Newson Reflects on 90 Years – Afro|date=February 2, 2017}}</ref>

== Personal == Moses Newson was born in 1927 in Fruitland Park, Florida. After attending high school in Florida, he enlisted in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1947, which made him eligible for the G.I. Bill to attend college. After his time in the Navy, he attended college at Lincoln University (Missouri), where he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism.<ref name=afro /><ref name=BaltimoreSun1>{{cite web|url=http://baltimoretimes-online.com/news/2014/may/16/one-one-moses-j-newson-about-his-storied-career/|title=Journalist Moses J. Newson talks about his "storied" career}}</ref>

==Career== Newson started his first job as a reporter in 1952 for the ''Tri-State Defender'' in Memphis, Tennessee where he and fellow Lincoln University graduate and editor L. Alex Wilson were the only two full-time staff members.<ref name=investigatingpower>{{cite web|url=https://www.investigatingpower.org/journalist/moses-newson/|title=Investigating Power|website=Investigating Power}}</ref><ref name=commercialappeal>{{cite web|url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2017/01/16/reporter-who-witnessed-lewis-beating-calls-trump-tweet-beyond-pale/96640726/|title=Reporter who witnessed Lewis beating calls Trump tweet 'beyond the pale'}}</ref><ref name=loc>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0031/|title=Simeon Booker and Moses James Newson oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Washington, D.C., 2011-07-13.|first1=booker|last1=simeon|first2=civil rights history project|last2=(u.s.)|first3=mosnier|last3=joseph|first4=newson, moses|last4=j.|website=Library of Congress }}</ref> In 1957, Newson left the ''Tri-State Defender'', and joined the ''Baltimore Afro-American'' where he eventually became the executive editor for the final 10 years of his 21-year career at the newspaper. While at the ''Baltimore Afro-American'', he covered such historic events as the Freedom Riders. In 1970, Newson reported from national political conventions as well as a number of foreign countries during critical periods, including his coverage of post-civil war Nigeria, covering the Bahamian independence, and coverage of Apartheid in South Africa.<ref name=afro /><ref name="BaltimoreSun1" /><ref name="investigatingpower" /><ref name=commercialappeal /><ref name=loc /> Leaving the newspaper business after 26 years, Newson worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (later to become the Department of Health and Human Services) as a Public Affairs specialist. After working for the government for 17 years, Newson retired at the age of 68.<ref name=nabj /> In 1998, a few years after his retirement, Newson teamed up with personal friend and Hall of Fame Sportswriter Sam Lacy to help him write his autobiography ''Fighting for Fairness'', in which Lacy recounts his career of bringing dramatic change to the sports world by helping break racial barriers. His columns are filled with on-the-scene accounts and insider stories of not only traveling/living with the teams, but fighting with and for them as well.<ref name=lacy>{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1999/01/24/sam-lacy-without-fear-or-fatigue/|title=Sam Lacy: without fear or fatigue}}</ref>

==Notable works of journalism== {{Location map+|United States|width=250|float=left |caption=Newson was born in Florida, started his career in Memphis, Tennessee, and moved for work to the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. |places= {{Location map~ | United States |lat_deg=38 |lat_min=53 |lat_sec=41 |lat_dir=N |lon_deg=77 |lon_min=1 |lon_sec=54 |lon_dir=W |position=top |label=Washington D.C.}} {{Location map~ | United States |lat_deg=35 |lat_min=7 |lat_sec=3 |lat_dir=N |lon_deg=89 |lon_min=58 |lon_sec=16 |lon_dir=W |position=left |label=Memphis}} {{Location map~ | United States |lat_deg=28 |lat_min=51 |lat_sec=31 |lat_dir=N |lon_deg=81 |lon_min=54 |lon_sec=47 |lon_dir=W |position=left |label=Fruitland Park}} }} As a reporter, Newson covered the Civil Rights Movement, school desegregation, voting rights, and other events related to domestic human rights stories. He soon became a city editor with the ''Tri-State Defender''.<ref name="investigatingpower" /> In what was an extremely violent year during the Civil Rights Movement, Newson covered the infamous murder and trial of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy who was mutilated in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. For the first time, Newson and other African-American reporters sat side by side with white reporters covering the story.<ref name=loc /><ref name=PBSAmericanExperience>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/till/|title=Emmett Till Q&A – American Experience |publisher=PBS}}</ref> Newson found himself covering the 1954 Supreme Court of the United States decision of Brown v. Board of Education, as well as school desegregation in Hoxie, Arkansas and Clinton, Tennessee.<ref name=loc /><ref name="afro" />

His first assignment at the ''Baltimore Afro-American'' took him to Little Rock, Arkansas to cover the Civil Rights crisis that was taking place there, which had been a national news story for months. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to block black students from entering Central High School. As a result, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent 1,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to intervene and protect the students who were integrating the school. Newson was among a group of black reporters who were blocked from reporting and brutally attacked and beaten by the white mob.<ref name="BaltimoreSun1" /><ref name="investigatingpower" /> In 1961, Newson became one of only two journalists who initially rode on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Freedom Riders, joining the group of Civil Rights demonstrators from Baltimore to New Orleans to defy Jim Crow laws. Newson's bus was attacked in Anniston, Alabama when a mob firebombed it and forced the doors shut in an attempt to trap the passengers inside; Newson was the last person to leave the burning bus. Gene Roberts, co-author of ''Race Beat'', was quoted as saying "Being a black reporter during these times was extremely dangerous, and there arguably wouldn't have been a Civil Rights Movement without the black press."<ref name="investigatingpower" /><ref name="afro" /> In 1968, less than one month before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Newson traveled to Atlanta for a one-on-one interview with Dr. King while he planned the Poor People's March in Washington, D.C.<ref name="investigatingpower" /><ref name=wbaltv>{{cite web|url=http://www.wbaltv.com/article/reporter-looks-back-on-interviews-with-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/8965076|title=Reporter looks back on interviews with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.|first=Lisa|last=Robinson|date=February 22, 2017}}</ref>

==Context== During some of the most turbulent times in American history, especially during the Civil Rights Movement, and while facing an alarming amount of hate and bigotry, Newson risked his life to provide accurate insight from the frontlines of the fight for equality.<ref name=parade>{{cite web|url=https://communitytable.parade.com/63345/brianpalmer/50-years-later-a-veteran-newsman-on-covering-the-civil-rights-struggle/|title=50 Years Later: A Veteran Newsman on Covering the Civil Rights Struggle}}</ref>

==Impact == Moses Newson witnessed and reported on some of the most important times in United States history, especially when it came to the Civil Rights Movement and the fight for equality for African Americans. He along with so many other African American journalists risked their lives to make sure the public knew the true nature of what was going on throughout the United States.<ref name=BaltimoreSun2>{{cite web|url=http://baltimoretimes-online.com/news/2014/may/30/braving-segregated-south-get-story/?page=1|title=Braving the segregated South to get the story}}</ref>

==Writings==

* [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n98083929/ WorldCat.org Identities]

==Awards== * NABJ Hall of Fame (2014)<ref name=nabj>{{cite web|url=http://www.nabj.org/?page=PastHallofFame|title=Past Hall of Fame Honorees – National Association of Black Journalists|website=nabj.org}}</ref> * 2008 Hall of Fame Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association (2008)<ref name=afro /><ref name=mddcpress>{{cite web|url=http://www.mddcpress.com/honors/newspaper-hall-of-fame|title=MDDC Press Association|website=mddcpress.com}}</ref> * Named 1 of 50 jurors appointed for the Pulitzer Prize awards in journalism<ref name=juror>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/02/archives/jurors-for-the-pulitzer-prizes-named.html|title=Jurors for the Pulitzer Prizes Named|work=The New York Times|date=January 2, 1976}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://www.nabj.org/ National Association of Black Journalists] * [https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0031/ Library of Congress: "Simeon Booker and Moses James Newson oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Washington, D.C., 2011-07-13."]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newson, Moses}}  Category:1927 births Category:Living people Category:African-American journalists Category:Journalists from Florida Category:People from Lake County, Florida Category:21st-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American people

Moses Newson

Connections

Linked from

Links to (35 total)